As a networking professional you are well aware of the abundance of unmanaged and managed switch options on the market. Manufacturers offer a wide range of unmanaged and managed switches for the home, the workplace and rugged industrial scale ethernet switches for large enterprise commercial and public projects. In this article, we will give a quick overview of the types of switches and focus on our recommended brand for Enterprise Networking Solutions.

Questions you need to consider before buying an ethernet switch include – do I need an unmanaged or managed switch? Is my switch going to be in a controlled or harsh environment? How much does the managed switch I am considering going to cost? Does my switch need to control POE (Power over Ethernet)? etc. Will I be connecting to networks in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Lusaka, Harare, Gaborone and other international offices? From there you can decide on the best unmanaged or managed switch for your application.

What is the benefit of a managed switch? In this video, you will get a helpful overview of managed switches

Do I need an unmanaged or managed switch?

Unmanaged Ethernet switches

Unmanaged Ethernet switches are more suitable for home use or small business networks. They are the cheapest and easiest to set up and manage. As an unmanaged and managed switch distributor this is our most commonly requested switch.

An unmanaged switch allows Ethernet devices to communicate with one another automatically using auto-negotiation to determine parameters such as the data rate and whether to use half-duplex or full-duplex mode.

If you are setting up a network for a SOHO environment, this is the recommended option. Unmanaged switches are generally plug and play. Within the range, we recommend the TP-Link range.

TP-Link 5-port 10/100M mini Desktop Switch, Plastic case – the ideal solution for your SOHO clients and their teams available from Eurobyte Technology South Africa

Web Managed Ethernet Switches

Web-managed Ethernet switches are also suitable for home use (tech enthusiasts) and small to medium business networks.
If you are setting up a network for a small to medium size business or a home with an extensive network to manage security, connectivity and entertainment we recommend the TP-Link and Planet Networking range. We supply these brands of unmanaged and managed switches in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Tshwane. We distribute the switches across the country and into the SADC region.

Managed Ethernet Switches

Industrial Managed Ethernet switches are used in an enterprise environment (medium to large businesses).
Managed switches have more capability than unmanaged switches but also require a skilled administrator or engineer to make the most of them. A managed switch allows you to have better control of your network and all the traffic moving through it. If your needs go beyond the basics, let your managed switch distributor know your project specs.

Gigabit 10/100/1000 Switches from Eurobyte Technology South Africa
A managed switch lets you adjust each port on the switch to any setting you desire, allowing you to monitor and configure your network in many different ways. It also provides greater control over how data travels over the network and who has access to it. Managed switches generally offer SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), which allows you to monitor the status of connections and gives you statistics like traffic throughput, network errors and port status.

What is the best industrial managed switch?

Managed switches are also quite a bit more expensive and setting them up may take a little longer. As a distributor of managed switches there are several questions we will ask to help you make the right choice.

Features available on managed switches may vary between manufacturers and models, but useful features to look out for include Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) support, the ability to implement quality of service (QoS), support for virtual LANs (VLANs), bandwidth rate limiting and port mirroring. You may also want switches with a remotely accessible console (command line or Web interface) to allow administrators to make changes or adjustments without being in the same physical location. If you are installing you switch in a remote or harsh environment the case needs to meet the IP ratings for protection from dust, water and extreme temperature.

One of the managed switches that ticks all the boxes is the PLANET XGS-6350-24X4C. PLANET XGS-6350-24X4C is a high-performance Layer 3 Managed Switch that meets the next generation Metro, Data Center, Campus and Enterprise network requirements. It has high-density 24 10G SFP+ and 4 40G/100GbE QSFP28 fibre interfaces delivered in a 1RU rugged case.

What can the PLANET XGS-6350-24X4C managed switch do?

The PLANET XGS-6350-24X4C managed switch is ideal for the traditional or fully virtualised data centres. It has support for advanced features, including RIP, OSPF, BGP, PIM-DM/SM, etc. The XGS-6350-24X4C comes with the complete Layer 3 managed function with comprehensive protocols and applications to facilitate the rapid service deployment and management for both the traditional L2 and L3 networks saving you time and money.

Extending to 1G/10G/40G/100G transmission speed is also a more straightforward process. The administrator can choose the suitable transceivers, taking into account the transmission distance or transmission speed required. The 800Gbps switching capacity means easy handling of huge amounts of data.

For high capacity servers where audio, video streaming and multicast applications are utilised we highly recommend the secure, rugged and cost-effective PLANET XGS-6350-24X4C managed switch.

If you want to know more about this and other gigabit routers and networking solutions, give Eurobyte Technology a call, we are a distributor of managed switches in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Tshwane. We can help you put the best solution together. Whether you are in South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Mozambique or anywhere across Africa – we can help you put together the perfect solution to take advantage of the 4th Industrial Revolution and the Internet of Things.

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